A few weeks ago I built TinyPopups.

The idea came from my own frustration. Every time I launched something, I wanted a simple way to announce features, collect feedback, or ask users questions inside the product. Existing tools felt too bloated for what I needed.

So I built the version I wanted.

This week I got my first paying customer.

It's just one customer, but it feels like proof that someone is willing to pay for something I made.

A few things that helped:

* I use TinyPopups on my own products every day. Dogfooding has probably been the biggest advantage because every annoyance becomes a feature request.
* I shared my personal WhatsApp number with users. I thought people would abuse it, but the opposite happened. Conversations became much more personal, I understood what users actually wanted, and it helped build trust.
* Instead of only writing blog posts, I created lots of SEO pages like alternatives, comparisons, "best X tools for Y," and free tools. They're starting to bring in relevant traffic.
* I spent much more time talking to users than building features.

One thing I've realized:

Building isn't the hard part anymore.

I'm not even a full-stack engineer. I know enough code to build products with AI, but marketing is now the toughest problem. Getting people to discover your product consistently is much harder than shipping features.

For those who've crossed that stage, what marketing channel ended up working best for you after your first few customers?

Got my first paying customer 🎉 Here's what actually worked.